Out and About with Diane

April 1, 2026: Punta Arenas, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina

Written by

Diane

in

We were up early today and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Then we hauled our luggage over the Bus Sur bus station- it wasn’t too far and wasn’t raining so not as bad as it could have been. It started raining as we boarded the bus. Our bus left about 8am for a 10-hour drive from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia.

The bus was very comfortable and it would have been even better if the person in front of me didn’t put their seat all the way back. We even had WiFi on the bus. The bus made a number of bathroom stops, plus we stopped at the Chile border for immigration control to leave Chile. Then about 5 minutes later we stopped at the Argentina border for immigration control to enter Argentina. Both were effortless and straightforward.

We enjoyed the fall colors we saw along the drive. We arrived in Ushuaia about 6pm and hauled our luggage over to our Ushuaia hotel(Hotel Albatross)- it was very near the bus stop/station, relatively flat and not raining so it wasn’t too difficult.

Easy check-in and nice room and I was happy to lay flat. We found a nice place for dinner and were happy to have ‘real’ food since the last few days we’ve had lots of bread with cheese and salami with the bedtime chocolate from my Sydney to Sydney cruise.

Beautiful comfortable seats (other than the person in front put her seat all the way back so I had difficulty getting into and out of my seat)
The bus drove onto the ferry with all the passengers remaining in the bus. We stayed on the bus for the 20 minutes or so it took to cross the straight
We crossed the Strait of Magallenes
A lighthouse where we crossed on the ferry
It was very, very odd to be in the bus on the ferry while the ferry was moving back and forth from the motion of the waves and swells. Normally busses don’t move in those directions
Chile border crossing location/building. You can see how remote it is and there is nothing else around. Since the photo was taken from inside the bus, ignore the odd reflections.
5 minutes down the road and here’s the Argentina border crossing location/building. You can see how remote it is and there is nothing else around. The Argentina flag colors are blue and white and that’s the color of the building. Since the photo was taken from inside the bus, ignore the odd reflections.
Yummy chicken schnitzel
Yummy ravioli
Really liked the heavy stone tea pot